Algerian Cuisine Cuisine Algerienne by Farid ZADI

Mediterranean Creole™ #6 Foodcast in English- Merguez Spiced Keema Kebabs and Mint and Lemon Marinated Chicken Kebabs with Salsa Tomatish (Tomato Salsa)

I reserved about 3/4 of a pound of merguez spiced keema (ground meat) from foodcast #4 to demonstrate how to form a keema kebab. I used 2-2 1/2 pounds of boneless chicken thigh and leg meat with the skin on. You can use boneless chicken breast, but I prefer the flavor of leg meat for this application. Do not distribute video, do not post video to youtube, google, etc... All materials are the property of Farid Zadi C/2007

Mediterranean Creole™ #5 Foodcast in English- Fideos (Fidwash, Fidawash) with Merguez Spiced Meatballs (Kefta)

Adam Balic's post about the history of fideos

However, in the case of this particular group of pasta, there is a particular pasta type called as “Fidawsh/Fidaush” mentioned in an anonymous thirteenth century Hispano-Muslim cookbook (translated by Charles Perry). In this text there a discussion on the basic shapes of pasta, followed by a description on how to cook them. Curiously the medieval cooking method still closely resembles that specialized cooking technique that is used today. For the interesting thing about this pasta dish is that it is actually cooked in it's sauce, rather then being dressed with a seperately prepared sauce.

The tomato broth I refer to in the video is lighter than a tomato sauce, so I call it a broth. Use vine ripened tomatoes for this simple preparation, you'll notice a lovely fresh tomato fragrance as the sauce cooks. I use 2 pounds of ground beef with a fat content of about 27% (I get it ground by a butcher). Do not be afraid of fat! A lot of  it cooks off during the browning process, but the flavor and moisture remain. My merguez spice blend recipe.

This episode is broken up into 3 clips as the file size for a single video clip was much too large for my computer to handle. We used a different kitchen this time, the lighting and sound quality are much better. We only had fairly minor ambient noise and chose not to use our external microphone. The camera person also had a lot more space to move around to shoot at different angles. Overall I think Sunday's shooting resulted in a much more dynamic show than our first one. Do not distribute video, do not post video to youtube, google, etc... All materials are the property of Farid Zadi C/2007

August 12, 2007 Algerian Foodcast Filming Recipes

I haven't completed my shopping yet, but so far the items for tomorrow's menu are, so things could change. The tentative list.

1. Chorba (soup) with semolina dumplings. (I received an email request for a semolina dumpling recipe)
2. Fidwash (Fideos) with merguez spiced kofta (meatballs) cooked in a light tomato broth. 
3. Lamb or chicken brochettes with mint pesto (a minty version of chermoula)
4. Lemonade with mint or maybe grenadine

Why do I use Adobe flash player for my foodcasts?

This is another question I received via email. I use Adobe flash player because it is the most widely available player on the internet. According to the company's website 98% of internet users already have the program. My audience is not just US based, I have lots of readers from Europe and North Africa. My French foodcasts and bilingual recipe posts are obviously for a francophone audience base. The internet is fairly new to Algeria and rapidly growing. I want to keep download times as painless as possible. I don't use youtube or google video hosting and choose to pay for hosting services because my foodcasts are copyrighted materials. For those of you who want a larger video or higher-definition video, I do have the technology for that. But that would mean uploading the videos in a less accessible format. Yes, I can link to two different video formats in my posts, but that involves paying considerably higher hosting fees (it adds up quickly and easily turn into hundreds of dollars per month) and more extra work than I have time for at the moment.

Mediterranean Creole™ #4 ((Foodcast in French/en Français) Tuna Skabetch with Preserved Lemon Citronette

Do not distribute video, do not post video to youtube, google, etc... All materials are the property of Farid Zadi C/2007

Mediterranean Creole™ #3 (Foodcast in French/en Français) Bay Scallops with Preserved Lemon Citronette

Do not distribute video, do not post video to youtube, google, etc... All materials are the property of Farid Zadi C/2007

Itemized List of Equipment for Foodcasts

Itemized List of Equipment for Foodcasts (videocasts, podcasts, vlog)

I received several emails asking about the equipment used for this blog and the foodcasts. Early readers have commented on how much the still photographs have improved since I first started this blog. At first we used a very cheap, low pixel digital camera. Last year we purchased an Olympus Stylus 800, an 8 megapixel camera for $500-$600 (I don't remember exactly how much we paid). For the videocasts we use our digital camera as a kind of second camera. You'll notice we edit in still images to our videocasts.

I'm not suggesting that the equipment we use is the best, the best in their price categories or that we paid the best price for them. But they are all easy to use and were affordable for us.

1. Canon ZR800 DV Camcorder- $279
2. Extra 5 hour battery- $79.99 (the camercorder comes with a battery that is good for less than an hour)
3. Tripod- $54.99 (it's definately sturdy enough for our little camecorder)
4. External microphone- $99.99 (most consumer camcorders don't seem to have adequate internal microphones for recording at least decent sound for videocasts. One issue is that the Canon ZR800 does not have a plate for attaching the external microphone- go figure. We did not use an external microphone for the first shoot)
5. Firewire or IEEE 1394 card for PC- $19.99, necessary for connecting the dv cable to the computer
6. DV Cable- 31.99 (Umm... the camcorder doesn't come with this, it's needed to download video from the camcorder to the computer)
7. Adobe Vlog software- $29.00 (video editing software that is incredibly easy to use and very good for even very tight editing, highly recommended)
8. Vlog or videocast hosting playstream.com- $22 per month plan for now

Oh yeah, the chef's shirt I wear is from Bragard, the Marcou, $26.00. I like it because it's clean and simple looking. They have other chef shirts that are much more expensive, but they look a little pretentious and frou frou to me. My pants are black cotton trousers in a slimmer fit ($50-$75), I don't like baggy elastic waist or drawstring pants and my shoes are Swedish clogs ($100-$150). I wear J.M. Weston shoes and suit trousers for other occasions and I'm considering having custom chef's shirts made in a better quality cotton. Yes, people ask these questions.

Mediterranean Creole™ #2 (Foodcast in French/en Français) Dersa Marinated Sautéed Shrimp with Preserved Lemon Mahonais

Do not distribute video, do not post video to youtube, google, etc... All materials are the property of Farid Zadi C/2007

Mediterranean Creole™ #1 (Foodcast in French/en Français) Poulet au riz épicé, Djej bil roz, Arroz con pollo, Chicken and rice tagine in the style of Oran, Algeria

Do not distribute video, do not post video to youtube, google, etc... All materials are the property of Farid Zadi C/2007

Chicken and Rice Tagine. This is an Algerian home cooking presentation. Invariably someone will ask if they can use boneless chicken. The bones add a lot of flavor to the dish, leaving the bone in turns the cooking liquid into a quick stock. It saves the cook the trouble of preparing a separate stock. Canned chicken stock is usually too high in sodium and adds an artificial "tinny" taste to dishes. The flavor is superior with bone in chicken. I used three drumsticks and three thighs for the dish, if you prefer breast meat I still suggest bone in whole breast, cut into four pieces.

8/05/07 Foodcast Shoot- Recipes with Preserved Lemons

Photos from today's shoot. Chicken and Saffron Rice Tagine with Preserved lemons or Arozz con Pollo in the Style of Oran. I plated the other dishes as kemia or mezze (small plates). Sauteed Shrimp with Preserved Lemon Mahonais (mayonnaise), Bay Scallops with Preserved Lemon Citronette and Greens and Tuna Skabetch (escabeche) with Roasted Peppers and Carmelized Shallots. The plating and manner of garnishing for the small plates is more international restaurant style, but the flavors and components are 100% Algerian. For example with the scallop dish, an Algerian home cook might serve the scallops on top of the greens or for the tuna skabetch the carmelized shallots and roasted peppers might me incorporated into the skebetch sauce.

Today's foodcast shoot had a few surprises and some learning experiences. A commercial kitchen is not the best place to shoot a foodcast. The stainless steel tables and appliances reflect light like a mirror, to make the bad lighting situation even worse the lights directly above me were set on a dimmer switch that caused them to flicker like disco lights.

Another issue was ambient noise from fans, hoods, ice machinces, etc... which I am hoping can be resolved with an external microphone placed close to me rather than relying on my camcorder's internal microphone.

"Performing" cooking in front of the camera is very different from teaching and doing demonstrations of cooking- especially shooting footage knowing that there will be no retakes and it will probably not to be edited at all. Filmed cooking has to happen in a kind of time space compression and not in real time, of course editing helps with this considerably, however I don't really have that luxury for the time being. We don't have the time or resources for retakes either, this is crucial as everything is shot for "live" viewing as it were. We're using "home user" type editing programs such as videoegg and vlog. Both are actually quite good considering their cost- free-$29.

I prepped my mise en place and had all of my ingredients for a given recipe right in front of me or within arm's reach. After today's experience I am confident that I can do concise, LIVE 2-3 minute cooking demonstrations for morning news show segments. I am also confident that I can do longer segments that don't require much if any editing.